For this post I am going to review the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. Called the "nifty fifty" this lens is one of the most versatile lenses of my glass arsenal. I find that I get into very few situations where I am reaching for other lenses while I have this attached. For all but one of the pictures on my blog so far I have used the nifty fifty and its the lens that is most often attached to my camera. The lens is a prime lens (see definition here) it lacks any zoom, or rather you just have to use your focus to adjust what part of what you are seeing is in focus. I was told once that if your eye was a lens, it would be about 50 mm and so you have to think of it like your eye, no zoom, just focus.
Upside - When I was looking for lenses for my new camera I started reading reviews and looking at the price. Having used one of these gems for another camera before I knew I liked the portrait capabilities of the 50mm. However I had no idea how much I was was going to enjoy this lens. The best feature in my opinion and on of the main reasons that you would want to use this lens is the f stop of 1.8. Practically what this allows you to do is shoot movement in low light. I have found countless places (night time, clubs, basements) where a f/3.5 (which is fairly standard) would simply not allow me to capture moving subjects without doing an exposure time approaching 1 second.
In addition this lens is LIGHT it weighs nothing when attached to the camera so when carrying it around for hours on end you pretty much will not notice the weight of the lens. Lets be frank here, this lens never leaves my bag, I hate letting people borrow it, I hate letting people touch it, it is my favorite lens. Period. The other upside to this lens is PRICE, with an MSRP of about $100 USD this lens is by far one of the cheapest and best investments you can make early in your photography career.
In addition what I really appreciate about this lens is you can get a taste of what not only prime lenses have to offer, but if you like the f/1.8 you can get the 1.4 for about $400 and if you fall in love with that and are making boat loads of money you can get the 1.2 for a little over $1400. Canons next prime lenses other than the f/1.8 are all over 500 so for $1000 its a steal.
Downside - Okay lets start with some practical stuff, for $100 your getting an all plastic (minus the optics) lens. So no metal boot and from what I have heard the lens is quite fragile. While I have never dropped it, after reading these reviews I actually keep the lens in the box in my camera bag. Most of my other lenses just get a cloth container but this one kept its box. In addition I was not pleased that this (and no other entry level canon lenses) come with a lens hood. Its something that after getting too many pictures washed out by sunlight I went ahead and purchased on Amazon and I have not regretted. In addition this lens is quite noise when going from Macro to Infinity but since most of my photography takes place outdoors I had never really noticed it till an portrait shoot. When manually focusing as well this lens's small ring can become a hassle. I will tell you this, the downsides are outweighed by the versatility.
In review, I would recommend this for anything but intermediate shooting, because the lens has no zoom because its a prime lens, and I don't shoot full frame there is a bit of a magnification that takes place and this can make it difficult to get large subjects completely in the image without being quite a bit back. But for all other shooting this lens pays dividends. At 100 dollars you really can't beat the price of the lens and its versatility, f 1.8 and since it weights nothing on your camera or in your bag I would consider it one of the first pieces of glass you should purchase
No comments:
Post a Comment